In this field, it is necessary to position correctly the products that may be consumables, cases, cardboard sheets, but also the products to be packaged themselves.
The products to be packaged generally circulate via conveyors onto the upper surface of which they are deposited. Once the products are finished, the only thing left to do is to grasp them to deposit them into a case or another carton, during a packing stage.
This situation creates a particular need for positioning the products. Actually, they are generally positioned in a column behind one another before the grasping and may be in contact. Multiple successive products are grasped to be brought into the case, and it is possible that their respective positions are to be adapted to said case, in particular in the cases where it contains spacers or braces. In certain applications, the products that are handled are then simultaneously fed into multiple cases, which can also be different from one another and contain braces. It is then necessary to provide a repositioning of products that takes into account wall thicknesses of the cases.
The relative position of the products is therefore to be changed between the moment of grasping, where they are positioned in accordance with the conveying, and optionally with the upstream stages, and the moment of deposition, where they are positioned in accordance with the scheme to be matched in the case. The gripper that grasps the products to put them into the case is then generally also able to modify the positions of the products for their path between the two zones.
In this particular case of need of changing position between a grasping zone and a deposition zone, for example, FR2971497 is known that proposes a gripping head equipped with a set of blocks each having a gripping means for grasping a product. The blocks can move in the gripping head under the action of a set of actuators, with one actuator per block. The amplitude of the movement of the block between the grasping and the deposition is regulated by adjusting the position of the block along the rod of each actuator.
One of the drawbacks of this installation is that the adjustment is difficult and the head is not very versatile. It is difficult to adapt it to new formats. In addition, each actuator acts between two adjacent blocks in such a way that the adjustment is only relative and therefore not very ergonomic.
There is therefore a need in this field for solutions for repositioning products with a facilitated adjustment.
To do this, the invention essentially proposes providing, for each block associated with a product to be repositioned, two stops, each associated with one of the positions of the block, with the actuator acting on the block for moving it against one or the other of these stops.